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1)
The signing at The Novel Experience went very well, as signings go. I've done some where almost no one comes and I only sell copies of the book to the store. This was much better.

It was a lovely day and the streets were crowded with tourists. Jim gave me the little alcove outside the store, and I brought all my characters and I set them up on the table and chairs.

At first no one stopped at all, even though I think the display was attractive with all the little people and Magellan himself. But people walked right by without a sideways glance. I guess they were all on their way somewhere else?

Half an hour in, the friends I'd invited and some others who happened by arrived. Pretty soon the little table was surrounded. People on the street were suddenly interested. Lots of people took the book club brochure, and I sold and signed several copies.

When the crowd finally thinned, I started approaching families with kids the right age asking, "Would you like to meet the characters from my new book?" That worked very well. More books went.

All in all, it was good, very good. Next time I'm going to wear more comfortable shoes though. What on earth made me think my feet should look good for a book-signing?

2)
On the very same day that Google called Tom to order many thousands of little chocolate coins with the Google logo imprinted on them, Journey to Mythaca turned up on Google Books.

Now that I have a book group guide together, I'm working on having setting up more book groups. I put an online one up on belief.net but considering how hard it is to find on the site, I can't imagine that I'll get the requisite 12 people to sign up.

The group that has the most potential to happen is the local one I'll set up through the Novel Experience. So that's my next job: to make a sign for the checkout there.

June and July will be good months for print reviews of Journey to Mythaca: one is coming out in the June/July issue of a homeschool magazine in Great Britain, and another will be in several small town weeklies in Marin County and the local free monthly here.

Today I'll write to the independent bookstores in Marin. I wish I could visit them in person with my basket of books but there's no time this month.

So the big news is that I'll have a book of my comics coming out from IDW Publishing this November. There's still a lot of work to do, but I did this mock-up of a possible cover idea, which I thought I'd share: